


Inevitable

by RickGrimes



Category: Walking Dead, Walking Dead (Comics), Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Crying, Don't Read This, Gen, Sad, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 14:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1514468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RickGrimes/pseuds/RickGrimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carl gets bitten by a walker and Rick has some difficult decisions to make.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for this. I don't know why I did it. I'm crei.

“No!” Rick screamed when he saw the walker bite into Carl’s shoulder.

He was just a bound away, but it wasn’t close enough. He wasn’t quick enough.

Carl cried out in pain, fumbling for his gun and struggling against the dead man’s hold.

Rick took his shot. The third last shot he was going to make in his lifetime.

The walker fell to the ground, his body falling apart with the impact.

Rick had his arms around Carl, pulling them to the ground with the boy in his lap.

“Awhh, Carl, no,” he murmured, tears already freely falling down his dirtied face, “We can do something, cut around the bite,” he spoke quickly, reaching for his knife.

“No, Dad,” Carl said evenly, “Look where it is. You can’t cut around that.”

“You’re not going to die,” Rick argued, “I won’t let that happen.”

Carl bit his lip, trying not to cry, “I’m sorry.”

Rick shook his head, “But… we—oh God, Carl,” he said, pulling the boy against him more tightly.

 

Carl ignored the violent burning and pain in his shoulder and wrapped his arms around his father. The last person he had to live for. The only one there to see him die. The only man he loved.

“It’ll be okay. There has to be something,” Rick said, still in denial, going through options in his mind. He knew he couldn’t cut around the wound, maybe if they could make it to another health facility… Maybe Carl was immune. He wanted to scoff at the ideas, but he was holding onto them with everything he had left in him. Carl couldn’t die. They were supposed to beat this, together. It was him and his boy. Without Carl… he wasn’t anything. He had just been a man looking for his wife and son, and now, without either of those people, there would be no Rick. Nothing left to live for.

“Dad, you know what has to be done,” Carl said, pulling back to look at the man. He thought of the night he thought he’d lost Rick, and he was selfishly glad it was happening this way. His father would be stronger than he was, and he could do what was necessary.

Rick blinked, his eyes stinging, “I can’t.”

“You have to,” Carl replied, “It’s okay. We gave it a good run.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“You remember what you told me, at the farmhouse?” Carl asked quietly.

Rick nodded.

“Well, it just happened different. I’m the one dying. I don’t have to see you go, so I did win,” Carl shrugged, “That’s all I asked for, so don't be sad. You can keep going without me.”

“Oh, Carl,” Rick started, “Parents aren’t supposed to outlive their children.”

“Not everyone has a badass dad like me though,” Carl joked, risking a glance at his torn flesh, wincing at the gory sight.

Rick twitched his lips in the beginnings of a smile, but he couldn’t bring himself to smile in a moment like this.

 

“You need to do it soon. I don’t want you to see me as one of them. I don’t want to be one," Carl broke the silence. He wanted to stay in his father's arms like this. He didn't want to leave him, but it was inevitable.

The man didn’t say anything, absentmindedly rubbing his hand up and down the boy’s back.

Carl reached for his father’s gun, picking it up, “Take it.”

Rick froze, not wanting to touch the weapon, but he reluctantly accepted it, “Carl, do you know what you’re asking me to do?” Rick asked, the tears blurring his vision. The ache in his heart worse than any pain he’d felt in his life. He would’ve suffered any other fate. But not this. Not having his only son die in his arms. Not having to be the one that ended the boy’s life.

“I love you. It’s okay,” Carl said, “It was going to happen sooner or later.” He didn’t want his father to see his tears because it would make it harder for the man to do it. To kill him. But Carl couldn’t help it. He cried for his shortened life, for the time with his father that was being taken away, for all the pain they’d endured just to have it end like this.

“I love you too, son,” Rick answered, clicking the safety off. He leaned forward to kiss the boy one last time. When he pulled away and licked his lips they tasted of salt and blood.

Carl closed his eyes, clutching to Rick’s shirt while he waited for his father to end his life.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered before he pulled the trigger, the gunshot echoing around him and overwhelming his senses.

Carl’s hands fell away from his chest, and his body went limp in his arms.

“Noo! Carl!” Rick cried out painfully.

The anguish of the loss ripped through his body and tore him up from the inside out. He pulled Carl’s corpse closer to him, hugging it tightly. Rick didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t justify getting up and walking away from Carl. He couldn’t leave him—his boy. What kind of father would he be if he just left his son to rot all alone on a deserted road? This was a tragedy.

Rick felt a numbness and a calmness wash over him when he made the decision. He raised the hand still holding his gun to his head. He squeezed his eyes shut and he pulled the trigger. Carl wouldn’t have to be alone.

**Author's Note:**

> I'M SORRY.


End file.
